Items for Excavator

Let's take a bit at a time:

"I have a lot of heavy equipment, so if I setup an item for the different sub phase of excavating"

You would only do this if it Matters to you; if you charge different Rates for the different Services; if you need to use that level of detail on Estimates and Purchase and Sales. Otherwise, it might just be "Service item = Excavator, rate per hour." Then, you can put some short description, such as on an Estimate:

Excavator, 5 hours, Clearing

Excavator, 1 hour, Foundation Prep

Excavator, 1 hour, Driveway Prep

Or, you want:

Clearing, rate might or might not be different

Foundation, rate might or might not be different

Driveway/Paths, rate might or might not be different

That's up to you, for what you want to see and use in reporting and data management.

"& corresponding labor"

Again, that's up to you. Example: Labor. Or, Landscape Labor vs Roofing Labor.

"for each phase that the equipment might possibly be used for?  I think this could be overwhelming for my guys to get the codes right (using tsheets)."

You also get to use them differently. Example:

On the Estimate, you listed the Excavator. On the Timesheets, the People list their Tasks, which might be Operator, or General Cleanup. These people are Not the Excavator. They use the excavator.

"I'm looking for the best approach to tracking the general labor, equipment & equipment labor for each phase that equipment may be used (Bobcat, Dozer, Haul Truck, Excavator, Backhoe...etc)."

Again, it's up to you. for what matters to you. I have an attached example of "Appliance" that is generic as Item, used specifically for quotes, purchase and sales entries.

"I don't think I will be able to track material by the subphases (if we get loads of stone it would be impossible to separate it to the subphases)."

Well, stone is stone, unless you Need to see it, quote it, buy it and track it as "noninventory item types" for Pit Run, 3/4", Stone Dust, etc. Again, only you know what matters in your operation. It is all provided for. Here's what I teach: You cannot report what you did not track. If you find yourself doing lots of freeform text, then you should have made more items, and not Notation and memos and freeform text.

"We use the equipment in other ways (bobcats for snow removal for example).  Does anyone have any advice how how to setup my item lists?"

Snow Removal is what you Charge me. Bobcats are what you Used to do that work. Someone Drove that Bobcat around. You won't track the Bobcat using the Employee's timesheet. You track the Employee's tasks, spent working at my location, doing that Snow Removal service. If you want to see "Snow Removal Driver" and "Snow Removal Labor" to track, report and manage your Staff, that means you need those two, separate, service items. You might be charging me "Monthly Maintenance Contract Fee" which is the same summer and winter, because you blow, mow, and generally maintain my property under a monthly contract fee.

See how what you manage is up to you, what you call it, how many different things you need, whether you job track it or not, and if that is billable or not?

"Also, is there a way to get the Time by Job summary report to show in a hierarchy instead of it showing the header:subphase:subphase? It is difficult to read this way."

That's the designation that a hierarchy exists. Run the different reports: Time by Item by Job by Name. Time by Name by Item by Job. Time by Name by Item. Time by Item by Job.